Upcoming Releases

Growing Stone, the musical moniker of Taking Meds vocalist/guitarist Skylar Sarkis, has announced his new full-length, Death of a Momma's Boy, due out June 28th via Near Mint. For years now Sarkis has been one of the most unique voices coming out of DIY punk, but Growing Stone proves he's just as adept at making incisive and intense music that doesn't rely on volume. Death of a Momma's Boy is his most accomplished work to date, a strikingly candid album that looks so unflinchingly at discomfort and despair that the beauty around the edges starts to shine through brighter.

To mark the album's announcement, Growing Stone has shared Death of a Momma's Boy's lead single, "The Keep." The new song offers the perfect entry point for Growing Stone's sound, a blend of ornate chamber pop and sparse indie folk with Sarkis' warm voice and cutting lyrics at the center, bringing to mind knotty, heartrending songwritings like Smog, Mount Eerie, Arab Strap, or Sparklehorse.

Recorded/produced by James Palko (who plays in Taking Meds and releases music as Jimmy Montague), Death of a Momma's Boy finds Sarkis embracing singer/songwriter music and letting his lyrics take center stage. The songs are often driven by brittle drum machines and fingerpicked guitars, with arrangements that oscillate between spare, intricate, and even menacing, all while Sarkis paints brutally honest vignettes that describe trying to rebuild after years of navigating addiction. The result is a record build around bone-deep candor, not just lip service to the idea of vulnerability. These are songs of real warts-and-all soul searching that can be as challenging as they are moving, resulting in one of the most compellingly human albums of the year.

Death Of A Momma's Boy track listing:

1. Apple Church Rd
2. The Keep
3. Country Song
4. Dishes
5. No Substitute
6. Spring in New York
7. The Gym
8. Play It All Night Long
9. Ballad of Growing Stone
10. The River Keeps The Pull